The purpose and need for the action is to fully process the renewal of the grazing permit for Newby Cattle Co. (permit # 2705036) on the Garden Spring (#01065), White Rock (#01078) and Summit Spring (#01077) allotments. The current term permit for Newby Cattle Co. (#2705036) is issued under the appropriations act for the period of 1/21/2010 to 2/28/2012. The issuance of the term permit would be for a period of up to 10 years. An overview of the current permitted use is shown below in Table 1.

Current term permit:

Table 1. Permitted Grazing Use, Newby Cattle Co. (#2705036)

Allotment

Acres

Livestock

# of Head*

Turn-Out

Removal

% PL**

AUM’s

Garden Spring

39,225

Cattle

348

1-Oct

31-May

100

2792

Garden Spring

39,225

Horse

4

1-Oct

31-May

100

32

White Rock

32,984

Cattle

361

1-Oct

31-May

100

2896

Summit Spring

17,603

Cattle

90

1-Oct

31-May

100

722

* these numbers are approximate

** % public land, for billing purposes only

Allotment Summary:

Table 2. Allotment Summary

Allotment

Acres

Wild Horse Herd Area (not HMA)

Special Status Species

Wilderness area

Garden Spring

39,225

Blue Nose Peak and Clover Mountain

Desert Tortoise

Clover Mountain

White Rock

32,984

Blue Nose Peak

Desert Tortoise

Mormon Mountain

Summit Spring

17,603

none

Desert Tortoise

none

An evaluation of the rangeland monitoring data and rangeland health will be conducted for the Garden Spring, White Rock and Summit Spring allotments. This data will be summarized in a standards determination document.

The Garden Spring, White Rock and Summit Spring allotments are located in the Tule Desert. These allotments can be found on the 1:100K Clover Mountains map. They can also be found on all or portions of the 1:24K Garden Spring, Blue Nose Peak, Toquop Gap, Lyman Crossing, Carp, Tule Spring, Lime Mountain, Jacks Mountain and Mesquite NW maps. The legal description of the general location of these allotments is all or portions of T.08S R.68-69E, T.09S R.68-69E and T.10S R.68-70E in Lincoln County, Nevada.